U.S. aides, Pakistan's ambassador square off

7/27/12 8:51 PM EDT

ASPEN, Colo.—Two architects of the Obama Administration's policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan squared off with Pakistan's ambassador Friday in a discussion over the country's troubled relationship with the United States, drone strikes and safe havens for militants on Pakistani territory.

The first flash point was Pakistan's treatment of Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician who was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason after helping the Central Intelligence Agency try to obtain DNA from residents of the compound where Osama bin Laden was found and killed by U.S. Navy SEALs last May.

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft led off the discussion on that issue by asking provocatively if Afridi's punishment demonstrated that the Pakistanis "have more loyalty to Osama bin Laden than they do to the United States."

"In a word, I'd call it outrageous," said Lt. Gen Karl Eikenberry (Ret.), who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011.

Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Sherry Rehman, insisted that Afridi's conviction demonstrated that rule of law in Pakistan is alive and well. "We are working according to a constitutional norm," she said, joining the Aspen Security Forum panel via a video link from Washington, D.C.

Rehman said Afridi "was contracting with a foreign intelligence agency without any permissions. He was contracting with militant groups who were beheading our soldiers," she said, referring to the acts underlying his treat conviction. "He had no clue that he was engaged in a fight against or search for Osama bin Laden."

Rehman said Pakistan shouldn't receive any more criticism for militants in its difficult-to-govern areas than Afghanistan does for similar hideouts on its territory—a statement that drew a quick and sharp retort from Lt. Gen Doug Lute (Ret.), a White House aide who is President Barack Obama's special adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"There’s no comparison of the Pakistani Taliban's relatively recent, small-in-scale presence inside Afghanistan…to the decades-long experience and relations between elements of the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban. So to compare these is simply, I think, unfair," Lute said bluntly.

Rehman let loose a few zingers of her own, saying that Pakistan doesn't have the option of '"walking away from" the Afghanistan-Pakistan problem, the way the U.S. may end up doing.

And after Lute parried a question about still-classified drone strikes in Pakistan by referring generically to U.S.-Pakistan "cooperation," Rehman said it is time for that sort of "robotic warfare" to end.

"The drone strikes now see diminishing returns," Rehman said, while acknowledging that up to this point they have helped kill dangerous militants. "We will be seeking an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that."

"We don’t welcome or sanctuary foreign fighters on our soil….There is no question now of hedging bets," Rehman insisted, before adding her own memorable retort: "This is a new Pakistan. Catch up, gentlemen."